Save your brain, Always wear a helmet

The inspiration for this article comes from an unfortunate incident over the July 4th holiday weekend that I hope to never witness again.  A man and woman were riding two up on a section of trail near the trail head parking area.  Apparently the driver lost control some how overturning the ATV throwing the riders.  Neither riders were wearing helmets.  Subsequently the driver suffered a massive head injury, an open skull fracture.  EMT’s tried to get the man stabilized as a Flight-for-Life helicopter was flown in to airlift the man to the nearest trauma center (in this case 65 miles away).  As of this writing the man ended up passing away even after a miraculous improvement in his condition upon reaching the hospital (according to press releases)  Official press releases can be found HERE and also HERE.  My sympathy goes out to the family.

It was a sobering fact reminding me why I always ride with a helmet.  It is true that a helmet can not prevent every conceivable situation that could cause a head injury, but it has been proved that a helmet will mitigate the severity of head injuries versus no helmet at all.  Would a helmet have saved his life in this situation?  Well hindsight is always 20/20 and you can always play “what if” but I believe it would have at the bare minimum left him with a survivable injury.  Even though a helmet probably would have saved his life, nobody ever wants to see a fellow rider go down this way.  In his death this should be a reminder for the rest of us to wear as much protective gear as reasonably possible to mitigate possible injuries while enjoying our favorite sport.  If your interested in reading about other protective gear read Getting Geared Up!

The most important organ in your body is your brain.  Protect it with an approved helmet.

Lets go racing! Getting geared up.

The second installment in a series all about what the first time racer needs to know before venturing out to his first race.  If you missed the first installment on how to decide what type of racing is for you, read lets get started.

Basic gear combos can be had pretty inexpensively

In the interest of the beginning racer is a list starting with the common required gear for nearly any race or event.  The list works down from the most important to the less important as well as optional.  These recommendations are in an attempt to show, while there are obvious costs to riding ATVs, its not much more that what it typically costs to get in to ATV riding alone.

What follows is mandatory gear for riding regardless if your racing, although this is the generally accepted bare minimum by national and locally sanctioned bodies. [Read more]